Blood of the Cosmos (52 page)

He entered the airlock chamber and saw that the manual systems still functioned, much to his relief. He started the cycle, then punched the emergency button, which caused an instantaneous dump of the contained atmosphere. The outer door opened, tumbling Aelin out into the array of tanks.

He knew about the black robots, had studied them extensively through telink—there were numerous records of their attitudes and personalities from the Elemental War. They were ruthless and vengeful, and they thrived on causing pain to other living things. Aelin understood them.

In his ill-fitting spacesuit, he drifted out into the stockpile array, and as he nestled among the ekti-X tanks, he felt faintly connected to the bloaters again. He remembered the larger reality that those mysterious nodules had allowed him to glimpse, if only briefly.

Once in position, vulnerable out in space while the attacks rushed all around him, Aelin triggered his distress signal. Many Confederation and independent ships had already pulled away from the large cluster, so that the framework of Ulio Station now looked oddly skeletal. Space around him was dark except for the sparks and explosions. Wreckage littered the emptiness, some pieces tumbling into the fringes of the shadow cloud.

The black robot ships were like a pack of predators, choosing and destroying one target, then another. The Shana Rei were not close enough to be affected by what Aelin would do, but that would not stop him.

He transmitted on an open frequency that he was sure the robots would be monitoring. He knew exactly how the monstrous machines would respond. “Help! This is an emergency!” Aelin said. “I have one hundred innocent women and children with me here. We're helpless. Please don't let the Klikiss robots come after us.” He was surprised at his own deviousness, but he was certain this was precisely the right bait to use. “We can't escape! Home in on my emergency signal at these coordinates. Rescue us. We have no other hope.”

The relentless black robots were perfectly predictable.

Like a school of razor beetles, the robot ships swooped toward the fuel-storage array. Aelin hung there, holding on to the tanks, one arm wrapped around the grid framework. The robot weapons were bright and hot, ready to shoot.

“Please don't fire on us,” Aelin transmitted. “Please.”

The black robots did not understand reverse psychology. They closed in, locked on target.

Aelin clung to the nearest tank, thinking of the bloaters, wishing he could be immersed in them again, like the womb of the universe, the perfect amniotic fluid that had awakened him, purified him.

The black warships homed in on the coordinates. Close … very close. They opened fire on the array.

Shadows. Blood. Fire.

The cluster of ekti tanks ignited at once, like an awakening star.

 

CHAPTER

86

ARITA

Even if she spent years on the isolated continent, Arita would never be able to see or understand all of the Wild. She had explored other planets in the Spiral Arm, and she knew the bizarre diversity of flora and fauna, but being alone in the Theron wilderness made her feel smaller than ever. And she knew that something was wrong here. She had not seen Collin yet, but she could sense an indefinable change—just as he had warned.

Leaving Sarein's dwelling, Arita spent many nights alone as she ranged farther, explored more. She called out for Collin, knowing the trees could hear, and she was worried about him. She had seen no sign of any green priest, not Kennebar or his followers. Other than Sarein, she might as well have been the lone human being on the continent.

Even the mysterious Onthos had dispersed into the deep forest, where they did not interact with others. Considering their tragic history, Arita wasn't surprised the aliens would withdraw into exile. Except for the first night when they had watched her from above, she hadn't seen a single Gardener.

She took her scout flyer into the deep forest far from any place she had previously explored. Day after day, Arita would land her flyer, set a locator beacon so she could find her way back, and then trudge through the forest.

Though not a green priest, Arita was as nimble and self-sufficient as Collin. When they were younger, the two of them had studied the plants, insects, and fungi together. Sometimes when she was all alone in the forest, she found herself talking aloud—talking to
him
. In return, she could sense Collin watching her—at least she hoped it was him.

After landing in a broad meadow, she wandered through the undergrowth for kilometers, taking images of blooming flowers, following iridescent beetles as they went about their pollination routines. She collected specimens when it seemed appropriate, but most of the time she just drank in details.

As she ranged afar one day, she heard a rustling in the trees above and looked up to see four Onthos watching her. She lifted a hand in greeting, and they imitated her gesture. “You are far from other humans,” said one of the Gardeners.

“Gathering knowledge is its own reward, and there's a lot to learn here. I'm exploring the continent.”

The aliens considered that for a moment, then said, “As are we.” Then they scattered, climbing up into the thick fronds where they were lost in the canopy.

At sunset, Arita made a nest of branches where she could spend the night among the fronds. She fell asleep listening to the burbling sounds that were so familiar to her.

In the morning, Arita woke, trying to hold on to details of another looming and ominous dream … some kind of gigantic presence out there, far away, yet everywhere. Calling out for help. But even the vague details faded with the fuzziness of sleep.

She climbed a hill where the trees were sparser and she could get a broader panorama of the untouched worldforest. There, Arita was disturbed to see a brown swath of dry and withered trees on a distant ridge kilometers away. A section of worldtrees had succumbed to some kind of spreading blight.

She wondered what could possibly have caused that. Maybe a lightning strike had sparked a fire, killing off an entire grouping of the worldtrees? It didn't look like a fire, though—the worldtrees just seemed to be dead.

She took many images with her survey equipment. The ridge was far off, across rough terrain. She couldn't cover that distance in less than a day or two, but maybe she should return to her flyer and come back to get a better look.

Suddenly, Collin startled her by dropping down out of the trees above. Her friend liked to surprise her, but right now he was not grinning; rather, he looked grief-stricken. “Now you've seen it too. The worldtrees are dying. It's a kind of sickness.”

Arita was so glad to see him she couldn't help sweeping him up in an embrace. “I came to see you—I got your message. I've been looking for you ever since I landed.”

“Kennebar was watching me. He didn't consider you to be important—but I do. I wanted to see you.” He looked around. “I'm glad you came.”

Arita looked back at the distant swath of dead trees, alarmed. “Why didn't we know anything about this? The worldforest must be hurting, and nobody reported it. Green priests are stewards—they should all sense when something like this happens.”

“They should.” Collin nodded. “I wasn't aware of it myself until I saw these dead trees with my own eyes. The verdani mind seems to be … forgetting, as if there's a stain in their memory.”

“But, what caused them all to die?”

“We don't know, but…” Collin struggled with his words and his doubts. “Kennebar dismisses it as part of the natural order of the worldforest. He minimizes the problem, says that if the verdani are not alarmed, then we must accept what has happened and not be concerned. He scolded me when I was too persistent.”

“I'm relieved you told me about it,” she said. “I'm always glad to see you. I kept your letter. It's very precious to me.”

Collin's voice was quiet and uncertain. “There are times when I wish…” He shook his head. “The green priests are in an uproar. You probably don't know—the Shana Rei just struck again, destroying Ulio Station. Two green priests were there—Dauntha and Aelin. They sent reports throughout the attack … but they've gone silent. The Confederation is very concerned, and the CDF is responding, but the ships won't get there in time. I fear there is nothing left of Ulio.” He straightened, back to business. He reached out to take her hand. “Let me guide you back to your flyer now, so I know you are safe.” Then he added in a voice almost too soft for her to hear, “Please.”

*   *   *

Back at Sarein's hiveworm nest, Arita tried to sleep, but somehow the surrounding walls left her exposed to unsettling nightmares. Out here, open to the brooding wilderness, Arita's subconscious again touched something giant and slumbering … confused and dispersed echoes that were just a veneer over immense power, yet they could connect with her through a weak dreamline.

When she tried to understand and communicate in return, a vivid panoply of astronomical images flooded through her mind: double stars, globular clusters, the blazing, gas-shrouded reactor of the galactic core, streams of cosmic dust that extended like tendrils throughout the Galaxy. Lines of swollen gas bags—bloaters—trailed along, following their own paths, reaching the bright womb of a star system and then metamorphosing, fissioning, and spreading out even more widely along unseen web lines. All connected.

She saw the arms of the Galaxy, then the neighboring galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds, Andromeda with its satellite galaxies, and then more and more—galaxies like specks in the local cluster extending even farther to the local supercluster.

What paraded through her fuzzy mind had more detail than any astronomical image she had ever seen, more intimate and with more comprehension than seemed possible for any brain to encompass. It appeared godlike, vaster than any universe she had ever imagined.

Arita felt an ache and a loss, and she couldn't understand how such majestic strength could be so lost, alone, disoriented. And she felt a vivid alarm, a spike of danger of something omnipotent calling for help.
Her
help.

When she awoke, thrashing, in the middle of the night, Arita climbed off her cot struggling to catch her breath while her heart pounded hard. She looked around, but sensed nothing. Her aunt's dwelling was silent and dark, but outside the fireflies swept along like sparks from a grinding wheel.

A silhouette sat hunched on the open balcony: Sarein. The woman sat alone, looking out into the night.

Disturbed by her dream, Arita went to stand next to her. Sarein didn't turn her head or acknowledge her niece. They just remained together in silence.

Finally, Sarein said aloud, “Can you sense it, too? The forest is uneasy, but I'm not a green priest, so I don't understand why.” When she turned to look at Arita, the darkness of her dark eyes and gray-streaked brown hair was intensified by the shadows. “Maybe you should go back home, where it's safe.”

The disturbing worldtree blight she had seen, as well as Collin's news about the Shana Rei attack on Ulio Station, made Arita greatly concerned. She nodded slowly. “Maybe I should.”

 

CHAPTER

87

ZOE ALAKIS

The very existence of Pergamus was in danger, Zoe knew—everything she had worked for, all the precious and irreplaceable data she had gathered—and all because they had been exposed by that fool Paolus.

She had to protect herself, and she knew Tom Rom would do anything she asked. But this threat was not one she could fight directly, and even he couldn't tackle the entire Confederation.

She wanted him with her inside the sterile dome, but Tom Rom refused. He rarely denied her requests, but this time he was firm. “I can't react quickly enough behind all those decontamination layers. I have to be ready in case the Confederation arrives with a full military force. I very much doubt they will take a polite no for an answer. It is only a matter of time. We both know that.”

Zoe understood. “We need to decide what to do, how to respond. We have to act instead of react. The King and Queen know about Pergamus, and they believe we have information that can treat their dying son—which makes them unpredictable, perhaps irrational, certainly dangerous. It would not be wise to provoke them.”

“I concur, but the problem is larger than that. Others in the Confederation will be concerned about how many disease organisms we hold here. They will see Pergamus as a threat. They will decide to do something about us.”

Zoe's gaze grew more intense. “Yes, and right now is the only time in which we control some of the variables. If
we
decide what to do, then
we
can guide the outcome.” She doubted she would like any of the solutions they came up with, but they had to do their best. “I will not surrender Pergamus to someone else—I'd destroy it all first, the samples and the research.”

“We will take that as a given,” Tom Rom said. “Therefore, perhaps our safest option is to release all personnel and trigger the fail-safe sterilization procedures. Obliterate Pergamus preemptively. Vaporize every last pebble and microorganism.” His determined face flashed a hint of a smile. “Then you and I can go somewhere else and begin fresh. We have all the prisdiamonds on Vaconda, so we would not lack for funding.”

He rattled off his solution so quickly that she realized he had already given this possibility a great deal of thought. And that disturbed her.

He continued, “We could take our data with us and start over again, just you and me. We've done it before.” He seemed almost to long for that.

But Zoe couldn't bear to lose it all. “Then we would become outlaws, and the Confederation would keep hunting us down. We would never be able to build another Pergamus, at least not on this scale. No matter how secret our work is, we'd still need access to researchers, equipment, samples.” She touched her lower lip. “No, I'd like to try a different approach.”